To embed Digital in the DNA of your business, you need a technology platform. How do you select new technology solutions and leverage what you have? How do you finalize your architectural practices, partner integrations, and data exchange standards? What should be your approach to governance and risk management? And, how do you make it all happen with severe budget constraints?

Contributor

• • Earl Newsome, Vice President and CIO, Praxair

Download Podcast
Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud  TuneIn, and Stitcher. Find other syndication channels here or search CIO Talk Network podcast on any other app.
Explore More

• Unlocking the Power of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
• The Sixth Sense of Leadership
• Does your Leadership Pass the Audition?
• Remote Working – Call for a Modern Leadership?
• Syncing Organizational Change and Leadership Development
• Future-proofing Leadership Strategy and Culture
• Acing the Security Leadership Recipe for Digital
• AI Enabled Leadership
• Leadership Recipe for VUCA
• Future-focused Leadership

Transcript 

Sanjog Aul [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to the segment on CTN. To learn more, please visit CIO talknetwork.com and the topic for today is Building Your Digital Business Technology Platform and our guest for today’s show is Earl Newsome, who’s the Vice President and Chief Information Officer with Praxair. Hey Earl, how are you doing?

Earl Newsome [00:00:18]:
I’m doing al Fanny, how are you doing?

Sanjog Aul [00:00:20]:
Very good, sir. Life is kind and we are enjoying the journey. So when we talk about journey, I’d say the organizations, the enterprises are on a digital journey and when that journey started, or even now, earlier, it used to be called as digital new and we call it digital now and where we are going is digital next but digital is a common thread and to make that successful, we are supposed to have a technology platform which will allow us to embed digital in the DNA of the business but when we are looking at the technology solutions that are available or the variety, the sheer variety of that and the volume that we are looking at, it could be mind numbing in terms of how would you build your property of solutions which will come together, integrate well and serve the purpose. So what is that approach do we take to build that platform is what we are here to discuss.

Sanjog Aul [00:01:21]:
So, Earl, my first question will be does it really require you to be an artist or a scientist to define what a technology platform should look like because of the variety, the volume, the novelty and the disruption that is part and parcel of what digital is?

Earl Newsome [00:01:47]:
That’s a great question. First, I want to just kind of start to think about and frame your question. I love the digital now versus digital NEC perspective because it reminded me of sort of the concept of vest practices versus the NEC practices and NEC practices are those practices which are not widely distributed or widely discovered yet. So I think that actually applies directly here into this notion of whether it’s an artist or a scientist and I think it’s much like you think about the quote about the future. It’s here, but not equally distributed.

Earl Newsome [00:02:17]:
I think the platform that you need for the digital journey is here, but not quite yet fully distributed because your digital journey is going to change based upon that digital ambition of your company. So the way that I think about it is I start off with what’s our digital ambition and the digital ambition is really broken up into two components surrounding do you exploit or do you explore the exploitation is how do I leverage things which I already do ever today and exploit those things, leveraging digital technology to drive better results or better outcomes for my business. The second element of this is do I explore new business models, new capabilities, et cetera, to achieve those new and different digital or digital business outcomes and so it’s just really understanding what your digital ambition is and what percentage of time do you spend on exploitation versus exploration. For us, we’re industrial gas company, so Praxiar now Linda PLC is a industrial gas company. So our focus is going to be really on exploitation and then that requires probably more scientific approach to what’s going to constitute the digital platform than one

Earl Newsome [00:03:27]:
that’s an argument and so I think when you think about am I exporting my core competitive advantage or am exploiting new business capabilities of business models, and depending on the 80, 20 rule, if it’s 80% exploitation, 20% exploration or 20% exploitation, 80% exploration, depending on that, will determine the degree of artists or scientists that you need to apply to building the digital platform. And I think once you understand that digital ambition and you know this for your company, your institution that you’re trying to do it for, you craft a strategy based upon your understanding of the degree of exploration or exploitation that you have to provide and then you create a platform that then accomplishes and delivers that objective. I will say this. Fundamentally, we don’t know what that platform is going to look like. And I think anybody who thinks that they do is fooling themselves. So you’re going to land on version one of it, but be prepared and be flexible on what it’s going to take to achieve version two and don’t like, don’t make, don’t let any decisions you make in creating version one of that limit your ability to deliver version two, because version two is coming, that digital next is coming and you just have to be prepared for it.

Sanjog Aul [00:04:41]:
So when you mention about version one and version two, do you think when it comes to say, let’s start the funding, our business case may be there, but more so funding and going to the executive management to say, hey, I am going to be on a roll. I’m going to roll out one, two and third version but each of them will cost you multimillion dollars so phony up the money because I’m going to keep you current or relevant. I mean, that’s going to be your pitch. But looking from a business standpoint, they’ll say, why do you have to continue to do 1, 2 and 3? Either you could go slow or you could wait till the time this whole thing comes together before you go ahead and implement. Do you think your business thinks like the way you think as the CIO?

Earl Newsome [00:05:25]:
Well, I would say, that’s why you have to understand kind of the culture of your company and that digital ambition and you matched that digital ambition of your company to your platform because if you are moving at 1, 2 and 3 and there are millions of multiple millions of dollars of investment and those things are going faster than the business can absorb, you’ll be seen as the person on the seventh ring of Saturn and you won’t last long doing that and so your digital ambition, your personal digital ambition as a CIO, as a technologist, has to match that of your company or else all bets are on And so I think if your company is willing to do that multiple millions of investment in versions 1, 2 and 3, and that’s their ambition, then you’ll be fine. Like I say, in an industrial gas company, that’s not our ambition. So we will build the first flavor of the platform, version one and, and version two will not be a million dollar multimillion dollar adjustment of version one, it will be substantially less. So what you’ll think about is we’ll be building components of the digital platform.

Earl Newsome [00:06:27]:
So think of the digital platform from an industrial company and operating company perspective as a collection of capabilities which allow me to deliver digital things in my key focus areas. And the way we think about it from a, an operating company perspective, we think about there’s only, there’s five focus areas that we’re going to focus on digital. So we’re going to focus on supply chain, we’re going to focus on operations, we’re going to focus on business process, and we’ll focus on external ecosystems with our customers. And we’re focusing in those four areas around building three fundamental capabilities to either increase our capability to scan or sense what’s going on in each of those four focus areas, provide analysis based upon understanding of the data that gets generated from those four focus areas, and ultimately providing action. And we call that our SPA model. So it’s really about tense, analyze, act in those four focus areas built on a flexible digital platform which is going to be built based upon building blocks of increasing our ability to do either sensing or scanning. That’s the IOT play analysis based upon the stuff we get from the sensing and scanning, providing machine learning, deep analytics, et cetera, and then ultimately providing ways to act either through robotic process automation or through visualization to get from human to actual. So when you think about it from a platform perspective, we’re going to be looking at component or building block to create our ability to synth, analyze and act across those four fundamental focus areas.

Earl Newsome [00:07:57]:
That’s why our version one and version two is really going to be around enhancing capabilities in those three areas of sense, analyze and act. Not necessarily about ripping out the platform and building a second one.

Sanjog Aul [00:08:12]:
Would you think, or rather let me ask you this question, shouldn’t every company have a personality and that to a type A personality so that they always are trying to maximize how far they can go as at least a for profit organization and if at all the answer to that is yes, then shouldn’t we working towards the potential of what’s possible versus just limiting ourselves to what people at the top said, Maybe they are holding back, maybe they are complacent. Should we be approaching our investments towards oh, this is who we are but in order for us to become what we want to become, which hopefully would be better than what’s today, should we shed that complacency and if the business is not waking up or rising up to the potential, then you as a CIO could go and give them ideas and make them run faster. What’s the wrong with that?

Earl Newsome [00:09:18]:
I think that there’s nothing wrong with that. What I would say is, that I’ve created a concept around what I think the habits of an effective IT professional. And I think there’s several habits that we have to have. The first habit is I think we’ve got to be really great IT professionals and that to me means triple D. That means you have to have business acumen, you have to have industry acumen and you have to have technology acumen and you have to have them in the appropriate components. I think your business and industry, the higher you get in it, the more that has to be. I think you understand your business here and how do we make money? You got to understand what industry and where is our industry going and what driving the outcomes necessary for customers that are being served by the industry and then ultimately how can technology help and accelerate you delivering those things, that’s just one of the habit of being a triple deep professional.

Earl Newsome [00:10:08]:
The second one is I think you have to be, I think you have to challenge your business and this gets to the area where you but appropriately challenge your business. So by being that triple D professional, then you know where to push and where to pull your business and so if you understand the nature of business, you can be the type, you can push the envelope, but you have to appropriately challenge your business and you do that. I think again by earning your right to do that, by being a great business professional, a great industry professional and A technology professional, then you earn the right to challenge your business appropriately. So I think that’s just one of the seven great habits. I think then we ought to be from the third one of the third habits. I think we just have to be disruptors,So I think IT and technology can be a disruptor in your business and in your industry. But you have to think about how do I disrupt and how do I disrupt appropriately, again, like the famous book disrupt or be disrupted.

Earl Newsome [00:10:59]:
So I think we have to be thinking about that from an IT perspective. What disruption is coming that we may not see so we can do that. I think the fourth thing is we have to be educators and so we’ve got to educate our business on the art of the possible. What? Because they don’t know what they don’t know. So for us being going out there and seeking and having the right degree of curiosity from a technology perspective, we can help educate our business. I think the fifth habit is really around. You got to be a really great advocate. You gotta be an advocate for your customer, an advocate for your technologist and I think the last half is you also have to be a tough customer. So you need, you have the both to be an advocate for the capability, the skills that you deliver from a technology perspective, but also you need to equally be your toughest customer.

Earl Newsome [00:11:44]:
So be tough on yourself, be tough on, on the people and be tough to ensure that we’re delivering the very best, all of that we possibly can do. So when I think about what it takes to be a great IT leader, I think about those things and those habits that we have to have and as you’ve mentioned, clothes have. It needs to be this notion about how do we challenge, but how do we challenge our business appropriately and again, I think you don’t want to be seen on the seventh ring of Saturn because that won’t be effective if you’re out there saying things that just quite frankly are not consistent with the ambition of the company, I think you’re going to be running a file. But if you have, if you’ve earned the right between being a great business professional and great technology professional and a great business professional, then you can challenge your business appropriately.

Sanjog Aul [00:12:30]:
Let’s take a quick break, listeners. We’ll be right back and let’s talk about the existing and emerging technologies that are available or coming available. What do you do to go about selecting the absolute best possible tools that your organizations will need today and also to be at least relatively ready for tomorrow? You cannot call it future proofing because that would be like having a crystal ball but at least you can do something which will allow you to not create a lot of throwaways as part of your technology stack if you will that you develop, how do you go about doing it? Please stay tuned listeners. We’ll be right back and Explore.

Sanjog Aul [00:15:13]:
Welcome back. So Earl, we have so many technologies floating around and I go moderate events across the globe and one of the biggest thing that comes up is people say I do not know if I can stop new technologies from coming in, but each one is looking better than the other, looks more promising than the other. When do I put a stake in the ground and say this is going to be my technology stack and when can I relatively not stop but at least pause going to the business to say hey, I’ve got something new which can do more for you, so show me the money. How do you tackle this?

Earl Newsome [00:15:51]:
I think a great question and I’m not sure that there actually is an answer to that one, but I will say it this way, is that I think as an IT professional you have to have what we call the technology discernment and you’ve got to really be able to separate architecture from architecture, right? The market is that stuff which promises which never delivers and we’ve all been bitten by that bug versus architecture which is actual technology that’s deployable, runs in real time and delivers the performance and the features and functions that we need to be successful. Ultimately, I call it the buyer’s paradox. A lot of times people buy technology from looking at the look and feel first, understanding that it’s on the latest technology, making assumptions about features and functions, then ultimately saying, hey, this is the demo. When you get this installed in your data center, it’ll perform like mad. But what we realize is that once you implement it, that paradox actually comes to inverse performance matters. Number one, does this thing do, does it perform well? Two, does it have the features and functions that I need to have to accelerate my business to achieve those outcomes? And the last two things are like technology and look and feel, those things really fall to the wayside. So I print this notion of technology discernment and being able to separate architecture from architecture is essential to you being successful in picking that right technology for your business. The second is you got to be humble.

Earl Newsome [00:17:12]:
You realize that you’re. It’s impossible to get it right 100% of the time. So you have to build and make solutions and make decisions that are inevitable. And so always look for things that give you flexibility, things that allow for you to pivot when necessary. It’s like the first law of holes. When you’re in one, stop digging. And so sometimes we fall into technology holes and we don’t really obey that first law of hole. And I think it and we’ve seen many billion dollar implementations that didn’t avoid or didn’t pay attention to that rule, the first law of holes.

Earl Newsome [00:17:45]:
So I think you have to be humble and recognize that when you’re in a hole, stop digging and then fibot. And then lastly trying to make sure that the decisions that you make enable as much as possible. Plug and play, you can’t always have that, but you know where you can. You want to be able to plug in the right technology and have it play immediately is certain terms of delivering those outcomes and so try not to make limiting decisions wherever you possibly can. And so you’re recognizing that potentially incisively in this digital world for that homogeneous versus heterogeneous, you’re really going to, you really need to think about heterogeneity and say, how do I build a flexible architecture that allows me to flex and pivot and take advantage of new technologies and new capabilities as they become relevant to my business and as they improve that, they move from architecture to architecture and I can apply that to my business. So that’s the way that I’ve done it and that’s the way we try to make our decision.

Earl Newsome [00:18:42]:
And so we, whether it is deploying cloud based services, whether it is deploying application based services, or whether it’s deploying microservices or where it’s deploying off the shelf software, we look across that entire spectrum ensuring that we purchase for performance and core features of function and for flexibility to work in our, in our environment so we don’t end up with this homogeneous thing which is inflexible.

Sanjog Aul [00:19:09]:
So while of course this was good description of what would be the philosophy behind it now, when you did or I’m sure you are currently working on keeping your digital business technology platform most relevant, what are your core specific guidelines in your context which are working out for you? And before you actually had this guideline or playbook fully cooked, what were some of the gotchas or mistakes or pitfalls that you encountered? So people learn from it.

Earl Newsome [00:19:43]:
I agree. I mean, that’s a great question. I won’t get into the specific vendors, but I will tell you that as we looked and we went into the cloud and we went to the usual suspect and started to talk about specific capabilities, I mean, we dipped our toe on the water on multiple occasions. And when it comes to deploying servers or deploying specific capabilities to certain cloud providers and understanding how do you make those cloud contracts work, we started, we stubbed our toe a bit, understanding how cloud bursting works and understanding how do you contract and manage core servers in the cloud and ensuring that those servers don’t run amok and that you ensure that you monitor those things effectively and turn down servers that are no longer necessary. So you need to, you have to, if you’re going to build this flexible architecture, you also have to build it with guardrail or else things will go and things can get out of crazy and cards can run crazy as well. So I think, yeah, that’s what we’ve learned is you have to put the guardrails up, you have to test for utilization and you have to have the right contract language so that you have good control over data ownership, you have good control over performance in FLA. Where you can, you have good controls over your ability to move if you need to move and you have good controls over the types of services that you consume. That also could make it difficult for you to move if you don’t want to build those subservices with the ability to transport them easily.

Earl Newsome [00:21:11]:
So those are the, some of the lessons learned that we got is making sure that you do those things the right way because if you don’t. You could create vendor lock in which create pricing elasticity issues and ultimately may compromise your security and your performance and if you want to avoid all that, start with that at the beginning.

Sanjog Aul [00:21:31]:
What do you think is the place for a legacy systems, which I know if it were a digital native, they would cringe at the idea of having any, and that’s why they are able to move things quickly but mature organizations, they build systems over the years, they keep working. That’s what we call legacy. They are seeing that there is no direct value in just trashing all of it and going afresh. So that’s why they exist. So if I were to start defining the digital business technology platform, how do you justify an ongoing existence of legacy systems and how do you apportion your budgets so that eventually you are not left with any legacy? If you think that’s justified, what’s your position on this?

Earl Newsome [00:22:31]:
My position on that is I think that’s probably overplayed in terms of legacy systems needing to be eliminated in order for you to achieve your digital vision and so the way that I thought about this question, I think about it from various ways. I think the way you deal with your legacy systems, either through manual interface all the way up to replacement, what I think is a continuum, some of these systems are in place and they need to stay in place because of the services that they provide. You may need to manually keep the mechanic way, take some data out of it, put it into your digital component so that you can service those digital needs all the way through to replacement of those legacy systems because I fundamentally think digitalization and maybe we start to define digital. Digital to me is again about how do we operate better, how do we drive better levels of experience, better levels of productivity, better outcomes for our business. Leveraging digital technology, not necessarily only about becoming more digital.

Earl Newsome [00:23:30]:
And so it’s not about the system, it’s really about the experience and I think we’ve got to think about the right way to do things in our business, whether it’s with old technology or with new technology and surround those things or leverage those things in our delivery of our business so that we understand that we’re getting the outcomes that we want. So don’t limit your thinking to just screens and interfaces, because I think a lot of people think, okay, digital means a mobile screen or something like that or some sort of interface. It could mean anything. I mean, retrofitting an existing legacy capability is Digital. So putting IOT sensors on a legacy motor to help you understand what that motor is doing is digital. So the legacy systems bay that huge capital investment. What I do is I retrofit digital on top of it, and that’s what we’ve done.

Earl Newsome [00:24:23]:
So we apply digital in terms of IOT internet of things onto an existing legacy platform and then we take the digital feed off of that and we help do better predictive maintenance on it. So it’s really about a retrofit strategy than it is a replacement strategy. And if you can do that with physical hardware, you can do that with systems as well. So think about the retrofit opportunity for some of your core systems versus a replacement opportunity and then that starts to reach you down the path, hey, I can be digital and still have Cobalt. And so I think this whole notion here is if you think about the journey and journey mapping as a practice and you look at journey mapping of your employees, of your customers and your products, not just, not just your customers, but think about your employees, think about your product, what journeys they’re on. Understand where the moments of truth are along the journeys of your customers, employees and product, then understanding where I can retrofit or put in new digital technology to improve the experience of that employee or that customer or that product throughout the process and you can be digital. That’s the way to think about it.

Sanjog Aul [00:25:33]:
So of course, at that technology specific technology level, there could be some shifts or changes that as the time goes by, as you see future versions come with more capabilities and more relevant versions, you would want to adopt it. But then when it comes to the very architecture, do you think we could have some staying power of a technology architecture which we can envision, which is basically going to transcend and or be sustained through the different shifting customer priorities and business models that you see as part of this whole digital world?

Earl Newsome [00:26:10]:
Yeah. Does it mean, is there some standardized technology architecture? I doubt it. I think when we think about the evolution of technology, we think about the evolution of the computer, we think about the evolution of the PP, we think the evolution of silicon, other than there being electricity being required and that’s, and maybe that’s with once you go to light, that’s a different way of communicating and moving things and so I don’t know that you can say one thing is going to be consistent throughout the evolution of this thing, especially if we go to quantum and these other things. So I think, you know, digital and digitalization means many things to many different people. Therefore the components of the architecture and the technology required to deliver their version of digital is going to be different. And so I think we got to go back to exploit versus explore and understanding where we are.

Earl Newsome [00:26:56]:
And again, I don’t think anything can be 100% exploit or 100% explorer because I think you cut yourself off from other opportunities within your business. But if you have that appropriate balance between export and core, you understand what it needs to be for your business. You can drive technology commonality for a short period of time where you need to, but then be prepared to pivot. And so for us, as we think about it, we’re going to focus on a primary provider of our cloud services and so we’ve got that in place and so we’ve got good contracts, we’ve got good things in place. And so we’re working with them to deliver our services on that platform as we expand our ability to data and analyze and act. But as we we need to incorporate another platform, another basically brick in our overall digital platform and it’s amorphous view of what the platform is, we will, and then we’ll work out ways to ensure that next building block can interoperate with our current building block

Earl Newsome [00:27:54]:
and that’s the way we think about it and it’s a building block at a time and the building block will create the platform but that because we’re using a building block component strategy, we can add additional building blocks as needed to enhance our capabilities of overall platform for our platform. You can think of it as an amorphous shape. That shape in configures and contorts over time based upon the needs of the business. And sometimes they’ll take blocks out, other times we’ll put additional blocks in. And so today we do that with IOT technology, we do that with analytical technology, we do that with RPA technology, we do that with software as a service technology. So we take these various technical components and we plug them into our platform and then they become part of that platform and it helps us again deliver against those for business outcome.

Sanjog Aul [00:28:47]:
Let’s take a quick break listeners. We’ll be right back. And while what we discussed was a technology architecture, which of course could be called as a block in that big castle that we may be building, but let’s talk about after we come back is about the blueprint, the enterprise architecture, which is a little more holistic, it is a little more accommodating. Are we in a position, are we the type of artist today who understand digital enough, even as it will morph so that we create that enterprise architecture which doesn’t have to be dramatically changed for us to be at least partially future ready? Is that a possibility? What’s missing or what needs to be done? Please stay tuned listeners. We’ll be right back and explore.

Sanjog Aul [00:31:32]:
Welcome back. So when we look at technology as building blocks, yes, understand there could be shifting and you might replace one block with other but when we are talking about keeping sustainability off a business and some science to this magnet or some maturity, then shouldn’t we be looking at having semblance of a relatively good accommodating enterprise architecture type of blueprint which everyone would then adhere to? Do you think digital moves but not move enough for it to require a shift in the enterprise architecture every now and then, do you think how do you see it?

Earl Newsome [00:32:15]:
I think that I think we need to future proof our investments, right? As we make these investments in these various building blocks, we need to future proof our investment, our investments. And we do that. The way that we do it here is we apply patterns. You call it architecture roadmap. I call it more of a pattern. And so I try to do more patterns because I think we think about a pattern and that pattern I think is a collection of technologies, processes, people, and you can add culture to that. But a technology pattern has this notion of architecture processes and I’d say people. And so we create these technology patterns and then those guide our architecture.

Earl Newsome [00:32:53]:
So as long as something can fit within the pattern and the pattern is tailorable because we use the Word pattern. So we think about it like a suit. A suit has a certain pattern associated, but it can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual wearing that suit. So not everyone wears the same suit, but all suits have the same pattern. Like our aesthetic suits have the same pattern. And so what we try to do is we try to create these architectural patterns or technology patterns which allow for us to future proof our investment so that we make sure that the things these are adaptable and changeable, but they fit a consistent pattern which allows for us that maximize, reuse, maximize the longevity of our investment and then ensuring that we’re able to meet the needs of the business on a going forward basis.

Sanjog Aul [00:33:39]:
So if you are looking at the next wave of where we are going and along with that people are constantly talking about talent as a gap and so much so that even the people who you would have otherwise thought they could train in this new breed with new skills, actually there are no trainers available because it’s so new. So who is going to train who? How are you going to build the talent pool which will be able to support the shiny new platform that you’re talking about?

Earl Newsome [00:34:14]:
Great question. The way that I think about it is this way. I think about it in terms of I think we all have the responsibility leadership as responsibility for workforce management and planning. I think we begin with the a concept of planning or this new platform. And so I think you have to know what you have. So you start with a good inventory of the skills and technology capabilities that we have and then you then know what you need to have added to that set of skills and capabilities in order to support the new platform. And so if you think about it, simple workforce planning. And I’ve got a set of skills with a set of proficiencies and level of expertise that that’s my baseline, then I know and I understand what technologies I’m introducing, what kinds of capabilities I need and levels of proficiency that I need.

Earl Newsome [00:35:04]:
I chart that out and then I do something unique kind of in our business we give our people an opportunity to go close the gap themselves. And so I’m a big believer in investing in people. And so if I can give you here’s a target that I need to feel that associated with this particular technology, whether it’s called robotic process, information process automation, because we’ve now started headed down this path with particular vendor, this is the type of tools we need. We don’t have it in house, but I have a need and I’m looking for three experts in it. So we’ll go bull red several experts. But we’ll also give an opportunity for our team members who are excited about that particular technology to go become the experts themselves and themselves nominate themselves to go close that gap. And so when we think about this from a workforce planning perspective, we know what we have, we kind of know what we need based upon where we’re going. We let people self nominate on how they’re going to close that gap and then we start to figure out do we need to close that gap by either hiring or renting expertise as needed.

Earl Newsome [00:36:07]:
So that’s the way we think about it. And you find that it’s amazing when you give people opportunity to self nominate. You may find out that you already have some expertise that she just didn’t know about. So especially a larger team, you, you’ll have people who are hungry about doing this and those people are hungry who have again that triple deep investment in your company, giving them that extra, additional technology skill to compliment their deep industry and business skill is a winner.

Sanjog Aul [00:36:36]:
So your response assumes that people are going to and then there are people who are self learners. I give you that. Now would you think with the new newness of what we are looking at, the very novelty of new disruptions happening, is your workforce planning going to be dependent on the positive thinking that there are people who are self motivated and if you call upon their zeal towards the profession, there will be 10 hands which will be just about enough for you to get your job done or you going to become intentional about building a university or some form of a learning mechanism so that the technology exists but you are not sitting waiting for the talent to execute it because it has to be a little more than wishful thinking.

Earl Newsome [00:37:28]:
Absolutely. That’s why the plan has got a specific set of need that say that okay, here’s what I’m going to need. I have this group of employees who possess the zeal. I’m glad you said that because they do have. We, I mean, let’s not discount our employees.So we have some employees that have a zoo who can go close that gap quickly. That’s one element of our strategy other element is we’re going to have to go and we have a continual source of new people coming in, whether it’s interns or new hires that were hiring for a certain skill.

Earl Newsome [00:37:57]:
And then we can also go out and plug the gap or fill the gap with open to the strategic hires or where we need to. So I think it’s the combination of all of that, the combination of developed employees new blood coming in that are part of our intern and new hire program. Leveraging consulting and rental skills where we need to and leveraging our partners. It’s a combination of all of that because this is moving so fast, there’s no way that you’re going to be able to correctly predict the amount of deal that you’re going to need and have it waiting to be developed in some timely manner because you have to move much faster than so but I do believe zealot employees do are a component that I think is often overlooked. But don’t overlook your zealot employees. Don’t overlook you in a steady in stream of new talent, new folks through your intern programs, that kind of stuff that brings some of these new technology to you

Earl Newsome [00:38:49]:
and then leverage consultant and if you want to call it that as you need to and but also your partners. Your partners is a great source of talent. So that’s the way that I think about it and I think that allows for us not to leave people behind and then especially the zealous employees and I love that because zealous employees also equals engaged employees, by the way. So if you’re doing this thing the right way, you’ll have a higher degree of employee engagement and you will get better outcomes for the projects and services and technologies you will deploy.

Sanjog Aul [00:39:20]:
And just to reiterate on the very novelty and the newness of it. So even though you have zealous employees and then some consultants who claim that they can help you, which is of course that’s what they will learn on the job or they’ll do other things, do you have a benchmark to say who’s blowing smoke or who’s trying to just be Hercules and is that enough for your projects to be started? Maybe, are you not better off waiting for that project to start when you have a threshold level of skills available versus saying okay, let’s jump in, let’s see whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.

Earl Newsome [00:39:55]:
I mean, and appreciate you being provocative there. I think that’s the right provocation. Is it? I mean, is it a timing thing? I don’t think you’ll be given necessary the luxury of time. So sometimes you’ll have to execute with what you have. I mean, I would love to wait till I have, you know, Tom Brady plus Ezekiel Elliott plus.

Sanjog Aul [00:40:13]:
Yeah, no perfection needed.

Earl Newsome [00:40:14]:
Yeah, not gonna happen. So sometimes you got to go more with the team that you have. So I mean, that’s just the reality of it and I think what you have to do is just you have to manage expectations when you’re doing that and so if you manage expectations effectively, I think you can be very successful. So I, I think that’s just for you, there’s no such thing as you, you’re always going to get the people right, you’re always going to get the technology right. So I think the same way you have to be flexible about your technology, the same way be flexible about people and so that as you started down this path and recognize that first law hold when you’re in with that digging. So I love the way that I think Ray Dalio talks about it in his book Principles is that I mean those making those tough decisions with people are tough but you have to do it. I mean it’s the best for the project, best actually for that individual and the best for yourself.

Earl Newsome [00:41:06]:
So that if you recognize that you’re in a hole again the first wall holes when you’re in one, stop digging. This person is not the right person for the project, doesn’t have the right skill. You need to give them another opportunity to be successful elsewhere where their talent aligns with the need that’s needed because that’s the leadership challenge. If you didn’t put somebody into the best possible position for success, that’s a leadership challenge and you need to recognize that and fix it in yourself and give that person another chance to be successful either in your company or something yourself depending on what the situation is but then also you deserve that project to put the right people in that project so that team members that are working on it aren’t suboptimized and the customer who’s trying to get that project isn’t also suboptimized. So those are leadership challenges. And I think as leaders we owe it to the project, we owe it to the customers, we owe it to the team that’s working on that project and we off owed it over to the individual to put people to their best and highest possible year.

Sanjog Aul [00:42:03]:
Let’s take a quick break listeners. We’ll be right back. And let’s talk about the partnerships because when we are in today’s day and age, so externally focused and we exist because of our ecosystem, that means it’s not about just technology building blocks that you need for company internally, but we also have to look at the technology integrations because different organizations may have their own approach to building their own technology portfolio for the digital business. And then also about the data exchange, whether it’s happening through two different on prem databases or data centers or it’s happening in the cloud or in whatever in between. What is being done in that regard and what is Earl doing in his own organization to make sure that the partnerships are mutually beneficial and they’re all thriving because we are taking good care of the digital business which is powered by the right type of integrations and data exchanges. Please stay tuned listeners. We’ll be right back and explore.

Sponsor [00:43:09]:
Patient Centered Care requires a connected Enterprise Are you ready? If you’re looking to scale your healthcare IT efforts, visit redmain.com health today. Whether it’s to connect data from multiple partner solutions or developing software for unique needs, Redmain can help. To find out how Redmain can help your company deliver on the patient centered care promise, visit redmain.com help or call 773-693-3919. Visit today your growing business needs a highly productive workforce effectively communicating and collaborating without exposing corporate data to cyber attacks. Are you looking to balance security and workforce productivity, move beyond short term measures and securely scale your business with BlackBerry Enterprise Mob its solutions? To learn more, please visit BlackBerry.com enterprise predict your company’s future by creating it. Is your workforce able to connect, exchange ideas and share brilliance? Simply and securely create tomorrow Today Empower your people to innovate anytime at Anywhere who secured BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Management and document sharing solutions? To learn more, visit BlackBerry.com enterprise. You are listening to CTN CIO Talk Network with Sun Joe Gall. To learn more about our program, please visit CIO talknetwork.com Now back to the show.

Sanjog Aul [00:44:59]:
Welcome back. So let’s dig into the partnership side where they all may be your ecosystem partners, value chain partners who need to also move their agenda forward but at the same time you all have to work together like different households in a village to make things happen. And when you’re talking about technology integrations and the data exchanges and many other type of handoffs, how do you keep that? One is to build it once, but in this case it’s going to dynamically shift. In the digital business, how do you bring different partners along, especially when they are thinking of course about their own benefit first before mutual benefit?

Earl Newsome [00:45:43]:
Yeah, I mean that’s interesting. I mean we’re a B2B business and so as an industrial gas supplier, we provide our products in multiple ways to our customers. And so and we service multiple different marketplaces and multiple different sizes of customers, et cetera. So we have a wide variety of customers. In fact, one of our business, there’s 70,000 customers. So as we think about how to service those various different customers, our partners, and as they go down their digital journey and when they want us to participate, we just have to work with them as a channel master. Can we in fact create a common platform for us to create this digital partnership? I think luckily our business is fairly standard and simple depending on what you’re trying to get from us. So those interface and exchanges can be quite simple as I think a little bit more broader about partnership.

Earl Newsome [00:46:31]:
And these come down from business partnerships, from technology, strategic partnership. I think we have to apply what I call the 5Es. We have to educate ourselves on what those partnerships might bring. We got to get exposure to the various partnerships that might be out there, new and maybe to new partnerships as we look at more services and expanding our businesses, either horizontally or vertically with our customers, then do some exploration with those potential ways of expanding our business. Think about the art of the possible with those partnerships, then experiment and test and learn, then ultimately execute with BE, leveraging DevOps and Agile and different ways of trying to deal with these various digital partnerships. I think for us this is going to be a new, the digital business partnerships will be a new kind of entree to our business model. And I think just as those things will be new, we’ll have to, you know, have be educated, be exposed, begin to explore, then experiment and ultimately execute to deliver the right integration to take advantage of those new partnerships.

Sanjog Aul [00:47:32]:
Now, with all of these things changing, and we know with change comes vulnerabilities, with change comes security and business risk. So if you are looking at digital business to thrive and move at the speed of a Ferrari, you still want to feel confident that when you need to apply brakes, your brakes work. So what is your approach to thinking about your technology platform such that security is literally going hand in hand or for that matter, embedded as a fundamental component of that technology stack. And then when you’re looking at a business level, as a digital business, security is not seen as just an IT play in the minds of the business leaders, but seen more as a risk management play. So all the blessings you need, all of the adoption challenges which typically security leaders always complain about, we are able to help remove them. And that’s where maybe a CIO’s role also comes handy. How are you tackling that?

Earl Newsome [00:48:43]:
We’re tackling exactly the way Jeev just described you. The part of your question is we’re building it in. And so we have to build in testable code, securable code based upon small components having this micro governance mindset. So we’re taking a micro governance strategy, looking at user stories, epics, et cetera, and having that product mindset for the things that we’re going through. So we have product owners and those kinds of things and then they’re building that user stories in their backlog and implied the execution of the backlog. We’re building testable and securable code. I mean that’s fundamentally what we’re doing and we’re leveraging new ways to think about how do you build testable code and so that you can really get at the DevOp and think about DevSecOps. So I’m building stuff that’s designed to run well and to be secure and leveraging the DevSecOps model to build testable, securable code.

Earl Newsome [00:49:38]:
That’s, I mean you got to build it in. You have no chance if you don’t do it that way.

Sanjog Aul [00:49:43]:
So one last question. 30 seconds. If you were to give your advice based on your own journey, and I’m sure most of it has been successful, what would you say to other leaders who are trying to build their digital business technology platform? What leadership mindset they should carry? What top level, like working with the executive management related strategies that you recommend, but in very distilled form so that people can apply them.

Earl Newsome [00:50:17]:
I think there’s a couple of key things. The first thing is how do you build a platform with staying power? I think the answer to that is you don’t. I think you build a platform, a platform based upon a set of building blocks, recognizing and anticipating that it’s going to change. That’s number one, you recognize and anticipate this for a change. Number two is you begin and you match your digital ambition with that of your company, with your company and that way you’re aligned and you get business buy in and delivering this thing the best way you possibly can. And the third thing is, I think is this last thing we talked about. You build inside the things that you deliver inside your platform, destability and securability.

Earl Newsome [00:50:58]:
Because the digital world is going to move fast and I think the challenges in the threat landscape is going to move as faster, faster. So those are the things you have to do.

Sanjog Aul [00:51:11]:
On behalf of the show and our listeners, thanks so much Earl for sharing your thoughts on how an organization can really think carefully and also build a robust and scalable technology platform for the digital business which has staying power and which can actually be flexible to accommodate what comes next. Thank you so much again.

Earl Newsome [00:51:33]:
Thank you.

Sanjog Aul [00:51:34]:
And listeners, please like us on Facebook, search for CTN please sure to follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn community. Thank you again for listening to this segment on CTN. This is Sanjog Aul your talk show host. Till next week take care and god bless.